


Catch

by stardropdream



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-12
Updated: 2013-01-12
Packaged: 2017-11-25 06:44:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/636201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardropdream/pseuds/stardropdream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He was at that stage when girls were just harbingers of cooties. And of course they couldn't climb trees.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Catch

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on LJ April 19, 2008.

When they first met, he was trying to climb a tree. He scampered up the bark, clawing at it not dissimilar to a cat or a monkey. For his troubles, his sandals fell off.  
  
She’d walked up to him and shouted at him, “What’re you doing?”  
  
He’d jolted in surprise and nearly fell from the great height of ten feet. He stared down at her, looking slightly miffed that his epic journey up the tree had been interrupted by a _girl._  
  
He was just a poor boy in Suwa and she was the daughter of the lord. He didn’t know that—but her exquisite dress should have suggested just where she stood in the hierarchy. At his young age, any and all privilege was overshadowed by the mere fact that there was a _girl_ under him, staring up at him.  
  
“Go away,” he commanded with as much force and pride that he could muster when wrapping all four limbs around a tree and trying not to slip. “I’m busy.”  
  
“Oh, clearly,” she stated, blinking her large eyes up at him. They were a pretty color, he thought, and then hated himself for it.  
  
“I’m obviously climbing a tree,” he snapped before giving up and jumping from his position. There was one terrifying moment when his stomach lodged itself contently in his throat and he realized he was falling through the air—and really this was a much higher height than he’d anticipated—before he was on the ground and rolling with the impact of such a dramatic reentry to the world.  
  
“Not anymore,” she said, crossing her arms.  
  
“That tree’s hard to climb,” he snapped, and then his face adopted an almost pompous expression. “At least I can climb it.”  
  
“You think I can’t?” she asked, and her eyes glittered with amusement.  
  
“Of course you can’t!” he laughed. “You’re a girl.”  
  
“Hn,” she grunted before striding confidently up to the tree and grabbing the nearest branch, hoisting herself up. He stared in surprise at her slow, but steady, pursuit upwards. Her sandals slipped off, too, and dropped down to join his. Her hands were small and pale, but strong as she grasped one sturdy branch after another.  
  
It took a while, but eventually she was sitting on the branch he’d been trying his best not to slip off of earlier. She swung her legs one after the other, looking perfectly at peace and at home up in the tree. Her feet were dirty and scratched in places, and her hair had fallen loose from the pristine bun she’d had on the back of her head.  
  
He simply would not stand for this.  
  
“Beginner’s luck,” he called up to her before he returned to the tree trunk and climbed up the tree for a second time. It took him a sufficient amount of time as well, but once he was up there, he sat down defiantly beside her and hmphed right back.  
  
They didn’t say anything to one another, just sitting and staring at the horizon, where Suwa ended and the other territories began.  
  
“It’s going to snow soon,” he said finally, staring at the clouds. “I should go back home.”  
  
“Yes,” she agreed. “Father will be expecting me.”  
  
He jumped from the branch again, just as easily as before. Only, despite the familiarity of the descent, the plummet from top to bottom still unnerved him for one brief moment. He rolled on the ground, to absorb the impact, just like his father had taught him, and he looked back up at her expectantly.  
  
She hesitated, her eyes wide. She sat precariously on that branch, all alone now, and looked absolutely terrified. He realized, of course, and would have laughed at her if she didn’t look so small and alone way up there.  
  
“Jump,” he called up to her. “I’ll catch you.”  
  
She stared at him like he’d just suggested she fly from the tree branch back to her home. And perhaps that moment of heavy dropping to the ground did feel like flying—a bird whose wings had just been shot.  
  
“You silly girl,” he continued. “If you were afraid to come down why did you go up?”  
  
She doesn’t answer, but she looks less terrified now and more annoyed at him.  
  
“Stubborn girl!” he called up to her, holding out his arms. “I’ll catch you, I promise it won’t hurt.”  
  
Perhaps there was something in his eyes, perhaps something in his speech, or just the way his arms were held out to her and only her, inviting her, that gave her the courage to jump down to him.  
  
He caught her as promised and stumbled backwards. He clung to her stubbornly, refusing to drop her, even as he tripped over a tree root and fell on his back, her effectively knocking the wind out of him as her knee landed on his solar plexus.  
  
“There,” he wheezed. “See?”  
  
She scrambled off him and grabbed his hands, pulling him up as he struggled to breathe. She patted his back, and even though she was a _girl_ , and an annoying one at that, he found the gesture stupidly comforting.  
  
“I see,” she said once he’d regained enough breath to actually pay attention to the world around him. “…Thank you.”  
  
“I’m never doing that again, you nearly killed me!” he protested and shoved her away.  
  
She looked only slightly offended before she grunted and crossed her arms.  
  
“Fine.”  
  
“Fine!”  
  
They went their separate ways that day, but several days later when he returned to the tree, she was there waiting for him, and they climbed the tree together—though this time she didn’t go nearly as high. He stayed close to the ground, too, not because he was keeping her company or anything but just because falling from that height was such a nuisance.  
  
That was, of course, the only reason.


End file.
